Listening Skills 12/21/2023

Listening skill is perhaps the most critical element

in language and language learning, as it is the key
to speaking, and beyond that reading and writing.
Particularly, for the professionals, listening is used
more than the other skills.
At all levels in the corporate scenario---from entry
level to managerial ---listening is perceived as
crucial for communication.
Effective communication is
heavily dependent
on effective listening,
something many of us
may not be fully proficient at.

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Listening Skills 12/21/2023

 Improves relationships
 Improves our knowledge
 Improves our understanding
 Prevents problems escalating
 Saves time and energy
 Can save money
 Leads to better results

Communication Order Learned Extent Used Extent Taught

Listening First First Fourth
Speaking Second Second Third
Reading Third Third Second
Writing Fourth Fourth First

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Listening is hearing, understanding, remembering,

interpreting, evaluating, and responding
(Brownwell, 2002)

 Listening Is With The Mind

 Hearing With The Senses
 Listening Is Conscious.
 An Active Process Of Eliciting Information
 Ideas, Attitudes And Emotions
 Interpersonal, Oral Exchange

Active Passive

Listening Hearing
Making sense of what is Receiving sound through
heard the air without putting
Actual meaning oriented any real effort

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Listening Skills 12/21/2023

The listener The listener The listener The listener

hears sounds decodes or evaluates responds
and focuses interprets the message
on them the message
1 2 3 4

Mashraf Rizvi’s Effective Technical Communication pp: 60

 Hearing- The physiological process of receiving

sound and/or other stimuli.
 Focusing on the message- The conscious and
unconscious process of focusing attention
on external stimuli.
 Comprehending and Interpreting-The process
of decoding the symbols or behavior attended
to.

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Listening Skills 12/21/2023

 Analyzing and Evaluating-The process

of deciding the value of the information
to the receiver.
 Responding - The process of giving
feedback to the source and/or other
receivers.
 Remembering- The process of placing
the appropriate information into
short-term or long-term storage.

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Listening Skills 12/21/2023

'Active listening' means, as its name suggests,

actively listening. That is fully concentrating on
what is being said rather than just passively
‘hearing’ the message of the speaker.
Active listening is the
ability to focus completely
on a speaker,
understand their message,
comprehend the information
and respond thoughtfully.
Unlike passive listening, which is the act of hearing
a speaker without retaining their message.

Listener takes active responsibility to

understand the speaker and feeling of what is
being said.

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Pay attention
Give your full attention to the speaker and
what he is saying-his message.
• Look at the speaker directly
• Put aside distracting thoughts
• Non-verbal cues speak a lot-
Body language
Smile
Nod
Maintain eye contact

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Listening Skills 12/21/2023

Withhold judgment
Interrupting is a waste of time. It can frustrate
the speaker and limit your understanding of
the message.
•Allow the speaker to finish
each point before asking a question
•Don’t interrupt with
counter-arguments
•Don’t mentally prepare a rebuttal.

Reflect and Summarize

Reflect on what the speaker

has said- what I am hearing
is……………
To further your understanding by thinking seriously
about what is being said; take time to think
deeper, longer and harder and may be catch
something you may have missed earlier.

Summarize the speakers

key points

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Provide feedback
•Offer feedback to clarify-to help make clear
what is being said
•to ensure accuracy of understanding and to
complete the feedback loop.

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Listening Skills 12/21/2023

Informative Listening
 Vocabulary
 Concentration
 Memory
 Goal is to accurately receive information from
another person-Perceive information.
 Does not involve criticizing or judging, only
learning.
 Focus on key points
Sample scenarios include following:
directions, exchanging ideas, or learning about
someone through personal stories

Informative listening is the name we give to

the situation where the listener’s primary
concern is to understand the message.
Listeners are successful insofar as the
meaning they assign to messages is as close as
possible to that which the sender intended.
Much of our learning comes from informative
listening. For example, we listen to lectures or
instructions from teachers—and what we learn
depends on how well we listen.
In the workplace, we listen to understand
new practices or procedures—and how well we
perform depends on how well we listen.

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Listening Skills 12/21/2023

We listen to instructions, briefings, reports,

and speeches; if we listen poorly, we aren’t
equipped with the information we need.
There are three key variables related to
informative listening.
Vocabulary. increasing your vocabulary will
increase your potential for better
understanding.

Concentration. Concentration is difficult. You

can remember times when another person was
not concentrating on what you were saying—
and you probably can remember times when
you were not concentrating on something that
someone was saying to you.
We concentrate by resolutely withdrawing
attention from everything else.
To concentrate is to simply attend to one thing
and attend to nothing else.

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Listening Skills 12/21/2023

Concentration: There are many reasons people

don’t concentrate when listening.
1. Listeners are preoccupied with something
other than the speaker of the moment.
2. Sometimes listeners are too ego-involved,
or too concerned with their own needs to
concentrate on the message being delivered.
3. They lack curiosity, energy, or interest.
4. Many people simply have not learned to
concentrate while listening.
5. Others just refuse
to discipline themselves
6. Lacking motivation

Memory: you cannot process information

without bringing memory into play.

More specifically, memory helps your

informative listening in three ways.
a. It allows you to recall experiences and
information necessary to function in the world
around you.

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Listening Skills 12/21/2023

b. You would be unable to drive in heavy

traffic, react to new situations, or make
common decisions in life without memory of
your past experiences.
c. It allows you to understand what others say.
Without simple memory of the meaning of
words, you could not communicate with
anyone else. Without memory of concepts and
ideas, you could not understand the meaning
of messages.

Relationship Listening
The purpose of relationship listening is either to
help an individual or to improve the relationship
between people.
It can also be used when you listen to friends or
acquaintances and allow them to “get things off
their chests.”
Although relationship
listening requires you
to listen for information,
the emphasis is on
understanding the
other person.

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Listening Skills 12/21/2023

Relationship Listening

Therapeutic listening is a special type of

relationship listening.
Therapeutic listening brings to mind situations
where counselors, medical personnel, or other
professionals allow a troubled person to talk
through a problem.

Three behaviors are key to effective relationship listening:

Attending,
Supporting, and
Empathizing.
Attending.-Much has been said about the importance of “paying
attention” .
In relationship listening, attending behaviors indicate that the
listener is focusing on the speaker. Nonverbal cues are crucial in
relationship listening; that is, your nonverbal behavior indicates
that you are attending to the speaker— or that you aren’t! on,” or
“attending” behavior.
Eye contact is one of the most important attending behaviors.
Head nods, smiles, frowns, and vocalized cues such as “uh huh,” “I
see,” or “yes”—all are positive attending behaviors.
A pleasant tone of voice, gentle touching, and concern for the
other person’s comfort are other attending behaviors.

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Supporting- Many responses have a negative or

non-supportive effect;
For example, interrupting the speaker, changing
the subject, turning the conversation toward
yourself, and demonstrating a lack of concern for
the other person. Giving advice, attempting to
manipulate the conversation, or indicating that
you consider yourself superior then other behaviors
that will have an adverse effect on the
relationship.
Three characteristics describe supportive listeners:
Discretion—being careful about what they say and
do;
Belief—expressing confidence in the ability of the
other person;
Patience—being willing to give others the time
they need to express themselves adequately.

Empathizing-
Empathy is feeling and thinking with another
person. A caring, empathic listener is able to
go into the world of another—to see as the
other sees, hear as the other hears, and feel as
the other feels.
Obviously, the person who has had more experience and
lived longer stands a better chance of being an
effective empathic listener.
You cannot be an effective empathic listener without
becoming involved, which sometimes means learning
more than you really want to know.
Commanders can’t command effectively, bosses can’t
supervise skillfully, and individuals can’t relate
interpersonally without empathy.

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Empathic behavior can be learned.

First, you must learn as much as you can
about the other person.
Second, you must accept the other person—
even if you can’t accept some aspects of
that person’s behavior.
Third, you must have the desire to be an
empathic listener. And you must remember
that empathy is crucial to effective
relationship listening.

Appreciative Listening

 Goal is to listen for enjoyment or

entertainment
 Does not involve analyzing or evaluating
information
 Sample scenarios include attending a rock
concert, listening to music at home, or going
to a Broadway show

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Listening Skills 12/21/2023

Appreciative listening includes listening to

music for enjoyment, to speakers because you
like their style, to your choices in theater,
television, radio, or film.
It is the response of the listener, not the
source of the message, that defines
appreciative listening.
That which provides appreciative listening for
one person may provide something else for
another. For example, hard rock music is not a
source of appreciative listening for me. I would
rather listen to gospel, country, jazz, or the
“golden oldies.”

The quality of appreciative listening depends

in large part on three factors:
Presentation,
Perception, and
Previous experience.
Presentation:
Presentation encompasses many factors: the
medium, the setting, the style and personality
of the presenter, to name just a few.
Sometimes it is our perception of the
presentation, rather than the actual
presentation, that most influences our
listening pleasure or displeasure. Perception is
an important factor in appreciative listening.

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Listening Skills 12/21/2023

Perception: Perceptions influence all areas of our

lives. Certainly, they are crucial determinants as
to whether or not we enjoy or appreciate the
things we listen to. Obviously, perceptions also
determine what we listen to in the first place. As
we said earlier, listening is selective.
Previous experience:
In some cases, we enjoy listening to things because
we are experts in the area. Sometimes, however,
expertise or previous experience prevents us from
enjoying a presentation because we are too
sensitive to imperfections.
Previous experience plays a large role in
appreciative listening.

Critical Listening
Evaluate
Criticize
Pass Judgment
 Requires understanding
 Goal is to consider ideas heard from a
speaker to decide if they make sense
 Helps with making decisions based on logic
and evidence, rather than on emotion
 Sample scenarios include listening to a
political debate, a talk radio program, or a
restaurant critique

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Listening Skills 12/21/2023

The ability to listen critically is essential in a

democracy. On the job, in the community, at
service clubs, in places of worship, in the family—
there is practically no place you can go where
critical listening is unimportant.
Politicians, the media, salesmen, advocates of
policies and procedures, and our own financial,
emotional, intellectual, physical, and spiritual
needs require us to place a premium on critical
listening and the thinking that accompanies it.
The subject of critical listening deserves much
more attention
There are three things to keep in mind
They are as follows: ethos, or speaker credibility;
logos, or logical arguments; and pathos, or
psychological appeals.

Discriminative Listening
Most basic type of listening whereby difference
between basic sounds is identified.
Listening to single out something.

There things to consider;

Hearing Ability
Awareness of Sound Structure
Integration of non-verbal cues

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Listening Skills 12/21/2023

Discriminative listening is used

•to distinguish between sounds

•Children use it to develop phonemic
awareness
•Children pick-up on non-verbal messages
and repetition to develop understanding of
emphasis or
i.e. writing on chalkboard or speaking
loudly

 Listeningto understand, even if you disagree

 Being alert and open minded
 Asking questions for clarification when
needed
 Becoming actively involved and interested in
what is being said
 Giving the speaker and what he or she is
saying all of your focus and attention
 Quieting your mind in order to be fully
‘there’ for the person speaking

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Listening Skills 12/21/2023

 Thinking about what you disagree with

 Letting your mind wander
 Thinking about what you will say next
 Believing that you already know what the
speaker is talking about
 Looking for weak points to argue against
 Waiting for the speaker to finish or pause so
you can say what you want to say
 Trying to provide answers or advice
 Trying to prove something, such as how your
beliefs are more correct or that your point of
view is better

 Eliminate distractions
 Concentrate
 Focus on the speaker
 Maintain an open mind
 Look for nonverbal cues
 Do not react to emotive words
 Ask questions
 Sit so you can see and hear
 Avoid prejudices
 Visualize the message
 Relate message to personal experience
 Listen between the lines
 Take notes
 Paraphrase
 Provide nonverbal feedback

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 Find areas of interest.

The Poor Listener: Tunes out dry topics.
The Good Listener: Seizes opportunities: "What's
in it for me?"
 Judge content, not delivery.
The Poor Listener: Tunes out if delivery is poor.
The Good Listener: Judges content, skips over
delivery errors.
 Hold your fire.
The Poor Listener: Tends to enter into argument.
The Good Listener: Doesn't judge until
comprehension is complete.
 Listen for ideas.
The Poor Listener: Listens for facts.
The Good Listener: Listens for central theme.
 Be a flexible note taker.
The Poor Listener: Is busy with form, misses
content.
The Good Listener: Adjusts to topic and
organizational pattern.

 Work at listening.
The Poor Listener: Shows no energy output, fakes
attention
The Good Listener: Works hard; exhibits alertness.
 Resist distractions.
The Poor Listener: Is distracted easily.
The Good Listener: Fights or avoids distractions;
tolerates bad habits in others; knows how to
concentrate.
 Exercise your mind.
The Poor Listener: Resists difficult material; seeks
light, recreational material.
The Good Listener: Uses heavier material as exercise
for the mind.
 Keep your mind open.
The Poor Listener: Reacts to emotional words.
The Good Listener: Interprets emotional words; does
not get hung up on them.
 Thought is faster than speech; use it.
The Poor Listener: Tends to daydream with slow
speakers.
The Good Listener: Challenges, anticipates, mentally
summarizes, weights the evidence, listens between
the lines to tone and voice.

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 Physical
Barriers/
Environmental Barriers
• Noise and Distance
• Smell
• Too hot-too cold
• Loud talking
• Visual barriers-Infrastructure

 Linguistic Barriers
• Use of difficult words
or jargons
• Speaker’s speaking style
• Lag time
• Mispronounced words
• Badly organized material

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 Psychological Barriers
Can interfere with our ability to process
incoming information.
• Own anxiety, anger, frustration
• Lack of Interest

 Personal Barriers
•The Ego
•Involved with the Self
•Lack of Self Confidence
•Fear

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• Preconceived ideas and notions

• The Familiarity Trap
• Personal Stress in Life
• Different Levels of Perception
• Different Language Variety and Accent

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